Diary of a fitness newbie

"Eat - Drink - Workout"- mantra

Getting fit, losing weight, or gaining muscles has 3 basic commons building blocks.

1) What you eat: "Everyday", in our body, billions of cells from different organs constantly shade and are replaced by new ones. Good raw material is required to make healthy new cells.

Basic essential foods to always include - Chia seeds, cashew nuts, leafy green veggies


2) Drink: Nothing like drinking plain water. Your pee should be "pale yellow" (google the term to see exact shade). You should be drinking enough water always and not just during the actual race (half-marathon/marathon) or workout duration.

3) Workout: Running 'slow' but for longer time/distance with deep breaths is the key to burn fat. I.e. running pace at which you are still able to speak full sentences without huffing or skipping words. When you run even slightly faster than conversation pace our body's aerobic metabolism switches its fuel from fat to carbohydrates to keep up with the increased energy demand. We dont want to enter that regime. Finally, run consistently. Starting with 2 km per day, 6x a week, for 4 weeks. Increasing the distance by 1 km every week. Once you feel comfortable running 5km regularly for 4 weeks, you may aim for running every day around 45-60 mins but still with slow pace for 4 more weeks. By the end of 12 weeks you may be able to finish half-marathon within 2hrs to 2hr 30 mins.

** What to eat before a half-marathon/marathon: At least 2-3 hours before marathon, I would drink a fresh smoothie made from green leafy (1 cup) + 1 banana + 4-5 dates + cashews + chia seeds.
20-30 mins after you eat/drink the insulin level spikes up. Presence of insulin in the blood prevents the fat-based aerobic mechanism during the run (by running slow initial 40-50% of the run). Remaining in fat-based aerobic metabolism zone is beneficial for long distance runs.
For days before the race, eat balanced carbohydrates+fats based diet and load up glycogen in the body.